Baby Daddy Biology Assignment at Michigan High School

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, if you missed the Rush Limbaugh Morning Update today on your local EIB affiliate, I want to expand on it. Let me give you the overview as we presented it in the Morning Update today. A homework assignment at Romeo High School in Michigan made some parents uncomfortable. It really bugged them, it unnerved them. Students, ninth graders, were studying biology, which these days could mean anything. I mean, you could work Bill Clinton into a biology class for ninth graders, Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. You certainly could. So it could be anything.

The homework assignment that unnerved the parents was intended to help these young skulls full of mush understand DNA, which you could use Clinton and Lewinsky for that if you wanted to. Well, you could. The DNA chain in sperm is found on a blue dress to confirm that it was Clinton's. I mean, you could do anything you want here.

Now, DNA should be a very popular topic in certain Michigan blue cities when it comes to evidence collection. It's one of the purposes for DNA. You're collecting evidence. People have engaged in criminal activity. Michigan, blue cities, there's a lot of that, could have been relevant to these kids. But I'm digressing while I make that point. The homework assignment asked these ninth graders to figure out which Democrat fathered a fictitious baby. Actually, that's not the homework assignment. I just made that up. But that would also fit in a ninth grade biology class in current iterations of the curriculum.

Okay. Seriously, the question asked students to figure out who the father of a fictitious baby was, not which Democrat. I just made that up. The question really did ask students to figure out who the father of a fictitious baby was. Remember, it's a DNA lesson here. In today's vernacular, the students had to figure out who the baby daddy was. That's probably how it was actually phrased. "Okay, students, today we're going to use DNA to determine who the baby daddy is of this fictitious baby."

Here's the assignment. Here's how it goes. "The sister of the mom above also had issues with finding out who the father of her baby was. She had the state take a blood test of potential fathers. Based on the information in this table --" there was a table there, "-- why was the baby taken away by the state after the test?" That was the question. That's what had parents unnerved. Let me read this to you again. You're probably scratching your head. "What?" I did not misread this. This is the assignment. I'm reading it verbatim.

The sister of the mom above, the baby momma, also had issues with finding out who the father of her baby was. So she had the state take a blood test of potential fathers, suspects, baby daddies. Based on the information in this table, and there's a table of data that's presented here in the question, why was the baby taken away by the state after the test? So basically the students, okay, we're studying DNA, and we got a woman who has had a baby but she doesn't know who the baby daddy is. So we've got some data here for you to try to identify the baby daddy. In the process, and based on the information we've given you here, why was the baby taken away by the state after the test?

What did they learn? What happened? So they do the test trying to figure out who the baby daddy is, and when the test comes back the state goes in there and takes the baby away. Why? That was the question. It was a multiple choice question. Students could select the baby daddy from a list that included the cable guy, the mailman, the cab driver, the bartender or a guy she met at a club. Those were the choices. (interruption) What? Well, yeah, the baby momma here was quite busy. But the kids here are learning about DNA. After being given the information that they tested the DNA and after the state took the kid away, based on the information, why was the baby taken away by the state after the test? Multiple choice answer. The cable guy, the mailman, the cab driver, the bartender, or a guy she met at a club.

The short version of this is that the parents were upset. The teacher who made the test has apologized. Bill Clinton's name was not on the list of potential baby daddies. John Edwards' name was not on the list of potential baby daddies. Jesse Jackson's name was not on the list. It would have been much easier if they used real-life examples. Eliot Spitzer's name was not on the list of potential baby daddies. Nor was Anthony Weiner. His name was not on the list.

But the parents were upset at the whole scope here. Now, that's the overview. The whole story, there's even more to this: :Baby daddy biology assignment asks students to determine who fathered a fictitious baby, and then were asked to explain why, when they found out who did it, the state took the baby away." I'm helping you to understand, it was controversial even without listing potential fathers as Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Jesse Jackson, Eliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner. I mean, the list could go on.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, I should mention, in the baby daddy DNA biology assignment in Michigan at Romeo High School, asking students to determine who fathered a fictitious baby, only one parent complained. It wasn't a whole class of parents. It was just one parent. The teacher apologized. She explained that the three-page worksheet in question came from a teaching website that includes questions using concepts the children can understand. That's why she put it together the way she did. One parent. Only one parent.